50 Books for Babies

If you know us at all, you know we LOVE books! I've been reading to Ry pretty much since he was born, and now that he's almost ready to start preschool, I thought it was high time I posted a list of our favorite books.

This is a list of books Ry loved to look at from birth until about 18 months of age. There are a few we occasionally still flip through, but they're not as 'favorite' now as they were during his first year and a half. There are SO many books we could have chosen to list, but these books are the ones we've read over and over.

A note about our book choices:  we prefer to focus on books that are rooted in reality, as children don't develop the ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality until they're about 3 years old. As a result, they're aren't many books on this list featuring animals that talk or wear clothing, fairy tails, monsters, superheroes or other fantastical situations.

I also prefer to choose books for babies that have beautiful illustrations or photography or are visually stimulating.  We borrowed many of these books from our local library and purchased our very favorites or received several as gifts. 

Critters

1. Wild Animals (Baby touch and feel) by DK Publishing
2. Animals (Baby Touch and Feel) by DK Publishing
3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
4. Knut the Baby Polar Bear by Juliana Hatkoff
5. My Big Animal Book by Roger Priddy
6. I Went Walking by Sue Williams
7. Who Says Quack? by Jerry Smith
8. Baby's Animal Friends by Phoebe Dunn
9. Look at the Animals by Peter Linenthal

   10. Baby's Very First Noisy Book by Usborne

Ry is just in love with animals. We've had so much fun naming animals (both vocal and ASL), and learning their sounds. My in-laws gave Ry this Usborne noisy book when he was just a few months old. The illustrations are very simple, but Ry enjoyed turning the pages and pushing the buttons to hear the animal noises. It's one of the few books we had out constantly for almost 2 years. (Note, Usborne doesn't sell this particular book anymore, but they have several other very first noisy book variations, such as farm, train, zoo, etc.)

Ry also loves the Baby Touch and Feel animal books. He enjoys feeling the different textures on each page and actually still flips through these ones from time to time.

Project Date Night '16: February

For Valentine's Day, we typically prefer to skip the crowds, stay in and spend some quiet time together in the comfort of our own home. We introverts are like two peas in a pod.

This year, we had the added "blessing" of a gut-healing special diet program on top of my usual food allergies, so eating out wasn't an option for us anyway (as well as chocolate, dessert and candy of any type being off limits).

Décor
Have you ever heard of doing a "heart attack" on Valentine's day? Apparently it's similar to a "Ding Dong Ditch" except for Valentine's Day. In a "heart attack" you secretly put heart shapes somewhere near or on the unsuspecting victim's house/car/office/door/etc. I'd never heard of it before, but it sounded like fun.  I "heart attacked" our bedroom door with these heart shaped "I love you because..." tags (they're supposed to be attached to balloons, but I used them in my own way) and also made some paper "conversation hearts" with colored cardstock and a sharpie marker.